WASHINGTON, April 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday named former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown as his choice for the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand.
Brown backed Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and was reportedly considered as one of the major candidates for the job of secretary of veterans affairs.
Described by policy experts as a liberal Republican, Brown represented the state of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal U.S. states according to a 2015 Gallup poll, in the U.S. Senate from 2010 to 2013.
He ran for a full Senate term in 2012, but lost the seat to Elizabeth Warren, the darling of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Brown supported trying suspected terrorists in military tribunals and not civilian courts.
He also supported the limited use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," including waterboarding against non-citizen terrorist suspects.
